The campus community mourns the passing of Dr. Michael David Payne, 75, of Lewisburg, on Saturday, January 14, 2017 at Riverwoods, Lewisburg.<\/p>\n
Born January 17, 1941 in Dallas, TX, he was a son of the late Fred G. Payne and Jocie (Kirkham) and Lester Lundberg.<\/p>\n
He was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Oregon College. Michael then earned his doctorate in English from the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n
Michael retired in 2007 as Professor Emeritus of English from Bucknell where he joined the faculty in 1969.\u00a0 During his tenure at Bucknell, he served as a Presidential Professor of English, John P. Crozer Professor of English Literature, department chair, and Chair of the Faculty.\u00a0 He was instrumental in founding the Bucknell Institute of Lifelong Learning (BILL) and taught courses in the program for a number of years.\u00a0 Michael also served as director of the Bucknell University Press and associate editor for the Bucknell Review. His service to\u00a0the English department included helping to organize a series of lectures by well-known critical theorists at Bucknell and helping to develop\u00a0courses in children\u2019s literature,\u00a0theory, and\u00a0the Humanities Residential College.<\/p>\n
Michael was the recipient of numerous awards including the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Bucknell Class of 1956 Lectureship for Inspirational Teaching.\u00a0He was also honored with several grants and fellowships including Bucknell faculty research grants, a National Endowment for the Humanities research fellowship, a research fellowship with the Folger Shakespeare Library, and a visiting scholar position with the Warburg Institute at the University of London.<\/p>\n
His publications included numerous books and articles, including\u00a0The Greenblatt Reader<\/em>; Life.after.theory<\/em>; Renaissance Literature: An Anthology<\/em>; Reading Knowledge: An Introduction to Barthes, Foucault, and Althusser<\/em>; Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory<\/em>; Reading Theory: An Introduction to Lacan, Derrida, and Kristeva<\/em>;\u00a0and the 12-volume\u00a0Bucknell Lectures in Literary Theory.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Michael was a member of St. Andrew\u2019s Episcopal Church, Lewisburg.<\/p>\n He served on the Lewisburg School Board for several years and wrote a weekly column in the Daily Item<\/em> called, “On Books,” where each week he reviewed a different book.\u00a0 He stopped after he reached 500 books.<\/p>\n Michael was a caring man who loved his family, friends and the community he served. He is remembered by many as a colleague and mentor\u00a0with both wide-ranging and deep\u00a0knowledge, and a\u00a0congenial spirit with\u00a0a kind interest in the work of both younger and senior colleagues.<\/p>\n Surviving are three sons, Edward \u201cNed\u201d Payne, of Durham, England, Jeffrey Payne, of North Carolina and Albert Payne, of Lewisburg; one daughter, Jennifer Payne, of Oregon; and two grandsons, Devin and Jaysen Payne.<\/p>\n The family is planning a Memorial Service to be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, January 21 at St. Andrew\u2019s Episcopal Church, 255 South Derr Drive, Lewisburg, with the Rev. James Strader-Sasser, officiating.<\/p>\n